CoreLogic said an example of the greatest profit made last year for a second sale within three months of the original sale was a Fenton Park property which made a $93,000 gain in 54 days.
The property was sold on April 29 for $260,000 and resold on June 22 for $353,000.
The number of houses "flipped" last year made up about 3.4 per cent of Rotorua's property transactions. While the number of houses sold in a short time frame was higher last year than in 2015 and 2014, it is less than before the last property peak in 2007.
In 2005 there were 294 houses sold in less than a year - just over 11 per cent of the total transactions.
Nick Goodall from CoreLogic said Rotorua was similar to the rest of the country where there were less "short-term" sales in Rotorua in the last few years than during the lead up to the previous peak in 2007.
"This could be in part due to the introduction of the 'brightline test' to ensure short term capital gains are taxed."
The brightline test applied to properties bought and sold within two years and was to help determine if the gains on the sale of a property were taxable.
Steve Lovegrove said there were many reasons people sold houses within a relatively short time of buying them - and not all were simply using it as a quick money making attempt.
Mr Lovegrove said in a lot of cases gains would be accentuated by the fact the market was moving quickly in Rotorua.
He said in some cases people may have moved to Rotorua and bought a house, only to find it wasn't in the place they wanted to be and moving on.
"They may not all be house flipping."
He said there were a certain number of buyers or investors who came along looking for a property "with potential" to do up and on sell.
However he said following the brightline test people now tended to take a longer term viewpoint and buy a house which needed doing up, tidying it up and then putting a tenant in and holding on to it for at least two years.
"I think if the market continues to hold strength then there might be people having little two year anniversaries by putting their property on the market."
Mr Lovegrove said people in the business of buying rundown properties and cleaning them up were good for Rotorua - and improved the quality of housing in the city.
"I find it quite fascinating people would label that as an undesirable activity.
"It's not a Lotto win in most cases, these people will typically work hard and are prepared to do stuff others aren't able to do."
He said those who thought they could simply make a quick buck needed to know the market.
"They need to know when you are buying well and how to market and sell and present it well in the end, and they need to know what the real costs were of the upgrade."
Ann Crossley, First National Rotorua principal and district forum leader for the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, said it was quite possible that in many cases people had bought a property and tidied it up before reselling it.
She said the word "flip" was more about situations in Auckland when people were on-selling homes before they even really owned them.
"It has really negative connotations. I don't believe it is a problem in Rotorua."
Mrs Crossley said there were always going to be circumstances where people bought and sold properties within a year - and often they included genuine reasons like being offered jobs elsewhere.
She said for people who were handy, buying run-down properties and doing them up could be a good venture but people needed to factor in the tax.
"If you were going to buy something and then get tradespeople in, I doubt there is much money in it,
Simon Anderson, chief executive of Realty Services which operates Eves and Bayleys, said he hadn't heard of "house flipping" in Rotorua, but there were always situations where houses had to change hands within a year of being bought.
"We don't see it as a problem."
Rotorua Property Investors Association president Philip Macalister said he did not believe property "flipping" was a big problem in Rotorua.
He said investors were actually raising the quality of the housing stock quick significantly in Rotorua over the past couple of years. Investors tended to buy properties as longer term investments.
Mr Macalister said the brightline tax had deterred investors from quick sales, however while it wasn't happening he didn't personally have a problem with it.
"People who are flipping properties are no different to those trading shares . . . that's how financial markets work."
By the numbers
- Five houses sold in three months or less in 2016.
- 15 houses sold between three and six months after purchase
- 41 houses sold six to 12 months after being bought
